For those in the mood for a sandwich, a tan, a new cell phone and perhaps a pizza or two - all without leaving the apartment complex - the future is bright.

This August the first phase of Parkway Crossing, a 44-acre student village, will be completed just west of I-15, near Utah Valley State College. The complex will not only house thousands of students, but will also include a number of retail shops.

Two of the buildings in the complex will have retail shops and restaurants on the bottom floor and housing on upper levels. Shops include a cellular phone store, a dry cleaning facility, Maui tanning salon, Hogi Yogi and the Pizza Factory.

Rent starts at $245 for shared rooms, with free parking for all tenants and a shuttle service to UVSC.

Although the complex received BYU approval, skeptics doubted that Parkway Crossing would be able to lure BYU students beyond.

"Many people said we wouldn't get any BYU students," Johnston said. "But we're well over the 10 percent that we originally projected."

The student village is projected to hold up to 6,000 students after completion, but will house only 850 beginning this fall.

The massive site extends from 1000 South to 1200 South in Orem and is sandwiched in between I-15 and Geneva Road.

Plans for the complex also include a church meetinghouse, four swimming pools, and a full-service gondola to transport students across the interstate to UVSC. Developers plan to complete the gondola by 2004.

Heath Johnston and Craig Pickering, managing partners for Parkway Crossing, said the student village will compete heavily with other housing in Utah Valley even during economic hardship.

"Student enrollments don't change with recession, but more students choose to live at home," Johnston said. "We won't be vacant, but many other places will."

The vacancies at Parkway Crossing are already a hot commodity.

"Out of 850 beds, over 450 of them are filled already," Johnston said. "Everyday the volume picks up. In the next 30 to 60 days we should fill up all the rooms."

As for the other phases, Johnston said they will be completed anywhere between six to eight years.

"It's all market driven," Johnston said. "We're signing leases with companies for the next phases now."

Upon completion, Parkway Crossing will be the largest student-housing complex in Orem. The cost for the first phase of three main buildings, is 23 million.

Taking on the project was not about setting records, Johnston said. The opportunity just jumped out at him.

"Being a developer, I just saw there was a huge need in this area for student housing that also had a retail development," Johnston said. "And at the same time keeping it cost effective for students."

To supply the projected 6,000 students with power, DG Energy Solutions LLC will construct a new central plant that will generate half of the electric demand and all of the space heating, water heating and air conditioning in the complex.

Johnston urges students to take a better look at the complex by logging on to the complex Web site at www.parkwaycrossing.com.